PomPoms
by V3GG13vamp
Summary: The Cullens have just moved to Forks and it's time to start High School.  How far will Jasper go for the love of his life?
1. Chapter 1

Forks High School, 5th October 2002, 8.00am

New students were always a diversion from the predictability of another year at High School. Most of the kids had known each other since pre-school. In a town this small it was hard NOT to know someone. So the arrival that autumn, of the black BMW with the tinted windows caused heads to turn. The majority tried to sneak surreptitious glances, some like Tyler openly gawked. A rare minority, too wrapped in their own concerns, failed to notice at all as five new students walked confidently towards the reception.

"Jasper, you'd better have made sure I'm with Emmett for most of my schedule this time," pouted Rosalie.

Jasper sighed and was heartened to feel Alice squeezing his hand supportively.

"You were watching over my shoulder last night when I accessed the school files, Rosalie. You KNOW that you're with Emmett."

Emmett brushed his hand appreciatively across Rosalie's tightly fitting jeans.

"Relax, babe, I told you Jasper had it sorted. The next three years might actually be fun for once."

Edward glanced at the older siblings. At least they only had three years of High School to endure. He and Alice were condemned to the full four. He smiled inwardly at the thought of referring to them as 'older'. When put in order by human years it went Emmett (by a couple of months), Jasper, Edward. If you went by membership of their family it went Edward, Emmett, Jasper. If you went by the date of becoming a vampire it went Jasper, Edward, Emmett. Unfortunately though as far as Carlisle was concerned, Edward and Alice were going to be freshmen whilst the other three could progress directly to sophomore year. Being undead sucked.

And it would likely suck for all eternity.

Having collected their schedules from the office and been given the official welcome by Ms Cope the secretary they headed off to their various classrooms. Alice pulled Jasper to one side and ran her fingers lightly down the side of his face.

"It will be alright," she said confidently, and stretched up to give her mate a reassuring kiss. Jasper always found new environments stressful and constantly doubted his ability to control his baser instincts.

"Ewww, gross!" exclaimed a voice as two girls breezed past. "Aren't they like related or something?"

Jasper's eyes darkened a shade and a soft growl rumbled in his chest. Alice shrugged and traced _I love you_ on the palm of his hand. Jasper relaxed and with one last look at Alice, followed Emmett and Rosalie to their American History class. Alice always made everything better. She took away his doubts and fears and replaced them with confidence and hope. She was his entire reason for being. Without Alice he couldn't even begin to imagine enduring another moment of existence. To say that he loved her was like saying that the ocean was wet. An utterly inadequate word, which didn't even begin to scrape the surface of the depths of his feelings. He would do ANYTHING for Alice, and would do it without a moment's hesitation or question.

The day passed, slowly. As soon as the final bell sounded, the siblings met back at the car and slid thankfully into its plush interior.

"One down, 1094 to go," huffed Rosalie, causing a wave of laughter to sweep through the vehicle.


	2. Chapter 2

Alice sat at the wooden picnic table outside the library, swinging her legs. Jasper had earned himself a detention for 'wasting class time arguing the facts' in American History. It wasn't the first time this had happened but no matter how many times Carlisle tried to explain to Jasper that he should just go along with what the teachers said, Jasper couldn't seem to help himself. The trouble was, while ever Carlisle was telling Jasper off, Jasper could feel the waves of pride emanating from his father and knew that Carlisle was secretly pleased that he was standing up for the truth. Consequently the telling-offs and groundings had little long term effect on the rebellious young man.

From where she sat, Alice could see across to the large field where several sports clubs were practising. She could clearly see the beads of sweat on the boys' faces as they struggled to complete the laps the coach set for them. Alice grinned as she wondered what it would be like if Jasper tried out for a team. She giggled as she imagined the blur as he whizzed round the race track, using the soccer goal posts as hurdles on the way. She was glad he had Emmett and Edward to horse around with at home, even if they did get a bit destructive at times.

Her gaze wandered from the athletics team to the group of girls gathered around a CD player. She recognised some of them from her year group – lithe perky creatures without an ounce of fat between them. They all wore tight fitting lycra shorts with skimpy tankini tops and were watching an older girl as she demonstrated movements to the music. After a few more moments they fanned out into formation and began practising their routine. High kicks and back flips, tumbles and pyramids. The movements were precise, punctuated by the beat of the music. Alice was spell-bound.

"Alice? Alice?" Jasper's worried voice broke through her daydreams as she turned to find her beloved staring down at her.

"Are you OK?" he asked. "Was it a vision?"

"No," she smiled, "I was just watching the cheerleaders practising."

"C'mon darling, lets go home," he said. "I'm sorry you got stuck waiting for me again."

Alice's eyes glazed over briefly, then she shook herself and grinned at him.

"It's not me you want to worry about, Jasper," she said mischievously. "The school just phoned Carlisle and informed him about your detention. I think your book collection is about to be confiscated for two weeks!"

Days turned into weeks as the Cullens became part of the community. Well, physically at least. While Carlisle was rapidly recognised and respected for his wealth of medical expertise, the rest of the family pretty much kept to themselves. The five siblings dutifully attended school and maintained a perfect 4.0 grade average. Esme participated in one or two charity events at the hospital, providing baked goods, toys, clothes or whatever the latest fund-raiser required. When she wasn't busy with this she had her time filled with various alterations to their home. Interior design was a passion of hers and her current aim was to make the house flow seamlessly into the surrounding forest. She had already replaced as much of the exterior with glass as possible and had chosen to paint the interior walls in a subtle shade of ivory white which reflected the colour of the light at various times of the day, from the rosy pink of dawn through to a restful dappled green as the setting sun filtered through the leaves.

Generally the family was content with their lot, and certainly the hunting was proving very flavoursome in the mountains. Just one member of the family had a small nagging desire which wouldn't leave her alone.

Having no human memories of her own, Alice tended to live vicariously through those around her. She was fascinated at first loves and notes secreted in lockers. She watched as cliques formed – the 'in' crowd, the geeks, the studious ones, the loners – and wondered which one she would have gravitated towards had she been human. It wasn't that she was unhappy with her life as a Cullen. On the contrary, after becoming a vampire she had clung desperately to her vision of the honey-blond hero who would bring some semblance of peace to her world. And once she had found Jasper she knew it was only a matter of time before the rest of her family fell into place – mother, father, brothers, sister. No, Alice adored them all and yet sometimes, that tiny seed that told her she should have something more, flourished and put out long all-consuming tangly roots in her mind and left her feeling strangely unsatisfied. Right now, those roots were asking her teasingly, why she wasn't a cheerleader like all the other popular girls.


	3. Chapter 3

Carlisle heard Alice flitting softly towards his study doors and smiled to himself. He loved all of his children for each one had earned a special place deep within his soul, but Alice was different. She actually needed him as a father. He was always the first to see her grade A term papers. He was the one to whom she turned when Jasper was feeling particularly low about himself and wouldn't let her in. And he was the one who felt his long-still heart flutter briefly when she looked up at him with her bright topaz eyes and said '_Happy Father's Day, dad_.'

He wondered what she was coming to talk to him about this time. With Alice it could be anything from pleading to have Jasper's current grounding lifted to measuring him up for an entire new winter wardrobe. Softly, Alice slipped into the room. In her hand she clutched a piece of fluorescent pink paper.

"Alice, sweetheart, you've come just at the right time to distract me from these tedious tax forms," he smiled.

Alice rolled her eyes at Carlisle, she knew the tax returns were forged and filed within five minutes of Carlisle looking at them. Slowly she sidled round the room, straightening a picture here, brushing the spine of a book there before finally settling on the window sill and sighing heavily.

"What's wrong, my dear?" asked Carlisle worriedly. He could hear Jasper and Emmett jousting with fallen tree trunks not far from the house so he knew her mate was not the cause of her obvious distress.

Silently she slid the piece of crumpled paper towards him. Carlisle gently unfolded it and scanned the information within:

_Cheerleader try outs. _

_3.00pm Wednesday. _

_Anyone with some gymnastic or dance ability welcome. _

_GO SPARTANS!_

At first Carlisle was rather confused, then understanding dawned.

"Oh Alice, my child, surely you can't be serious? You KNOW we can never compete physically with humans. We could hurt them…they'd know us for what we are…"

Carlisle tailed off as he saw the crushing defeat on Alice's face.

"I would only move exactly as they do," she said in a small voice, "and I can make sure my hands are warmed enough that it doesn't feel strange."

The excitement grew in her voice.

"Carlisle I KNOW I have the self-control, I would blend in with them, I would only do what they tell me to do, I wouldn't make trouble, honestly I wouldn't."

By now she was practically pleading. At moments like this Carlisle hated his role as coven leader.

"It wouldn't work, Alice," he said, shaking his head. "Your body feels like concrete to them. What happens when they ask you to somersault and they try to catch you? Can you imagine the bruises they would receive on their arms? And what will you do when there's an important game on a sunny day? Will you let your fellows down by feigning illness? Please, Alice, I know it's dreadfully disappointing for you, believe me I DO understand, but this cannot happen. We have to maintain a distance, for their protection and ours."

He gently put his arms around his tiny daughter and drew her to him.

"I wish with all my heart and soul I could give you a different decision, Alice, but I can't. I'm so sorry."

In truth Alice had already seen the decision Carlisle would make, yet had clung to the tiny hope that something would make him choose another outcome.

"I'm going to see if Esme wants some help with the garden," she said softly, and was gone before he could say another word.

They had been through similar things before when Alice had craved human experiences. He knew she would return to her bright self soon enough but it didn't lessen the disappointment he felt at not being able to please his child.

As Carlisle had predicted, Alice managed to put the cheerleading dreams out of her mind. Meanwhile the family did their best to offer distractions to her. Rosalie and Esme took her on a weekend shopping trip to New York. Emmett and Jasper allowed her to play them both at one of their marathon eight board chess tournaments and graciously accepted defeat when she foresaw every move they would make. Edward played soft soothing music for her before making her shriek with laughter as he flowed from Franz Liszt's _Consolation No. 3 _into a rousing chorus of _My Old Man's A Dustman._ Things would have probably sailed along smoothly, but for an incident with Jessica Stanley.


	4. Chapter 4

It was not unusual for half the school to develop infatuations with the Cullens/Hales. They were undoubtedly stunning to look at, and carried themselves with that confident grace which humans always find attractive. Usually though, once the pairings became established, the infatuations dwindled to mild fantasies and nothing more. Edward was always the unfortunate exception to this rule, being the obviously single one. Over the years he had received numerous unwanted advances from both males and females (much to his horror and the delight of Emmett) but usually managed to put a firm halt to them with the hostile façade he projected. Sadly, Jessica Stanley was proving rather more thick-skinned than the average 15 year old girl and Edward was becoming thoroughly sickened by what was constantly running through her mind.

At first her attempts at gaining his attention were relatively subtle. A coy note tucked into his locker asking if he would like to sit with her at lunch. An 'accidental' bump as she rounded the corner directly into his path. Even the good old standby of dropping her books just as she was passing his desk (sadly another boy, Eric, flew out of his seat to gather her belongings before Edward had even looked her way). But as time went on and Edward stubbornly refused to take the hint she became more direct in her approach.

Edward was disgusted to find her standing next to his car after school one day (clearly she had left class early under the pretence of feeling sick so as to ensure Edward could not make a quick break for it). As he approached he could make out every one of her shocking fantasies in vivid technicolor: She and Edward naked in a bathtub, Jessica assaulting a naked Edward as he was pinned against a forest tree, Edward manfully sweeping Jessica onto the black silky sheets of a king sized bed (BOTH thoroughly naked of course), ugh he felt ill even thinking about it. And seriously – although he had nothing to be ashamed of in the trouser department, if Jessica's imagination were reality he would hardly be able to walk in a straight line down the street. Maybe he should lend her one of Carlisle's anatomy books so that when Jessica eventually did find an unfortunate boyfriend she wouldn't be overly disappointed.

"Hi, Edward," she fluttered flirtatiously. "I was wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee and we can talk about that awful biology assignment Mr Banner has set us."

Coffee was clearly not the only thing Jessica appeared to want to grab. Edward allowed his eyes to become a menacing shade of black and he smiled rather more widely than normal, causing her to take an involuntary step backwards.

"I need to make some things VERY clear to you, Miss Stanley," he said in an icy calm voice. "I have no desire to socialise with you, I will not in the foreseeable future desire to socialise with you. I do not require assistance with my assignments and I hate coffee. I'm flattered you might wish there was something more between us but there isn't. And there won't be. Ever. So PLEASE stop wasting your time with these silly advances and find someone more suited to your attentions. Might I suggest Mike Newton?"

With that he opened the driver's door and was out of the car park before Jessica had even realised he'd gone. Once the initial shock had passed a deep rage settled in her. How DARE he reject her like that. Who the hell did he think he was? Quickly glancing round to check that no one had witnessed her humiliation she stormed off to Lauren's house.

Lauren was hugely sympathetic to Jessica and listened attentively, exclaiming 'no way!' and 'pig!' in all the right places. Secretly though she was rather pleased that Edward had turned her down. It wasn't that she had designs on him herself, she just didn't want her best friend managing to hook the most desirable boy in school. Lauren's definition of best friend was of course as skewed as Jessica's.

"Don't worry, Jess," she soothed, "we'll soon show him and all his snotty siblings that they are NOT the best thing in this school!"


	5. Chapter 5

Alice arrived at the lunch hall early that Tuesday. Her art class had been dismissed before time so that the students could have some personal time to consider a subject for their upcoming project. Alice already knew what she was going to create – an abstract piece representing an explosion of light from a hole of darkness. She hoped the tutor wouldn't ask her to explain her inspiration behind the piece though. As she sat alone at the Cullen table she noticed Jessica and Lauren heading her way. Neither girl appeared to notice Alice sitting there.

"We must have had every freshman at try outs this year," exclaimed Lauren.

"Yes," agreed Jessica, "it was really difficult deciding who to accept and who to reject, they were all so amazing."

"I know," enthused Lauren, "It's a pity we couldn't have more losers show up to make our job easier, like that new girl, what's her name?"

"Umm, Agnes..? Audrey..? Oh I don't know, something frightful anyway which suits a little freak like her," sniggered Jessica.

"Can you imagine if she had shown up, how on earth would we explain that ugliness was NOT a criteria for acceptance?" Lauren shook her head in fake puzzlement as the two wandered over to the salad bar.

They had both noticed Alice watching them practise on several occasions and correctly guessed she wanted to be part of the squad. What a perfect way to get revenge on Mr 'I'm-Too-Good-For-Anyone' Cullen, for they had noticed how protective he seemed to be of his tiny sister.

Alice shrank into herself in dismay. She was ugly! She was a FREAK! How on earth could she ever have imagined herself as part of the cheerleading team? They were right – who would ever want to have someone like her around? Tiny pools of venom welled up in her eyes and trickled softly over her cold alabaster cheeks. Before anyone else could arrive, Alice slid out of her seat end exited the hall.

Jessica and Lauren watched her go with glee. Team Jessica 1 – team Cullen 0.

Jasper was quite frantic when he found traces of Alice's scent in the lunch hall but no Alice. He tracked her out of the door and over to the ornamental gardens behind the main block. Alice was curled in a tiny ball beneath one of the shrubs and gently Jasper reached out to place his hand on her back.

"Alice, my love," he whispered fearfully, "what's wrong? What's happened?"

"Oh Jasper!" she cried, and flung herself into his arms.

Jasper was horrified to see the traces of tears on her still damp cheeks and wrapped his strong arms around her protectively. Alice NEVER cried! He'd seen her angry, he'd seen her melancholy. But this, this over-whelming grief that was pouring from every inch of her, this he had never seen before and it terrified him. His beloved Alice was devastated by something and it made his heart fracture into tiny pieces to see her this way. He gently rocked her as she sobbed against his chest.

"Bitches," murmured Edward, as he glimpsed into Alice's mind and saw the cause of her anguish.

Jasper was all for heading straight into school and ripping their spiteful heads from their shoulders when he heard what they'd done to Alice but Emmett and Edward restrained him.

"Take her home, Jasper," ordered Edward, "I'll tell Ms Cope she's had an allergic reaction to something and that you've taken her straight to Carlisle at the hospital."

In truth Alice did once have an 'allergic' reaction. It was about fifteen years ago when they had all been living near the Cape Breton Highlands in Nova Scotia. They had all been playing a wildly exuberant game of tag when Emmett had come hurtling through the trees screaming "Payback time!" in his best Blain from Predator impression. Alice had thrown herself down a fifty foot embankment and en-route had unwittingly gathered a mouthful of pink tickseed leaves. Some of the sap had passed unknowingly into her system and when it encountered her venom a strange reaction occurred. Alice's head felt light and crystal clear, and when she tried to see where Emmett's next attack would come from, she couldn't.

At first she had panicked and flown to Carlisle in terror, Jasper hot on her heels. After calming them both and asking for second by second details of what had happened in the minutes leading up to Alice's loss of visions, Carlisle suspected the plant. He took a small sample of venom from Alice's mouth and upon analysing it discovered that the venom had reacted to produce a compound similar to serotonin used in antipsychotic medication. He reassured Alice that once the chemical was fully broken down by her venom her visions would return.

Sure enough at precisely 8.47pm that night Alice had a vision of the smack Emmett was going to get in 17 minutes time when he clumsily broke the zip in his hurry to help Rosalie out of her favourite dress. Everyone relaxed.

Carlisle, ever the scientist, wondered if it was just Alice's gift which could be suppressed in this manner. Edward, taking a more direct approach, had already been scoffing handfuls of the bitter tasting foliage for several hours but to no avail. At 9.03pm he was assaulted by the graphic imaginings emanating from Emmett's mind. As predicted, a resounding smack followed one minute later.

Jasper had refused to even try. He was anxious that if he found a way of isolating himself from the emotions of others, he would no longer have to worry about feeling the terror of a dying human and perhaps then he would find it even harder to resist temptation.

Jasper cradled Alice's head in his lap as a delicate breeze wafted in through the open window of their room. She was calmer now and Jasper purred softly as he stroked her hair soothingly. He had allowed his feelings of love for Alice to pour over her in a steady stream for hours, and now the nastiness of Jessica and Lauren was smothered by the overwhelming truth that Alice was beautiful and adorable and wonderful and loved; so, so loved.


	6. Chapter 6

At school her four siblings formed a guard to ensure she had as little contact with Jessica and Lauren as possible. There was always one or more of them waiting to meet her from class and Edward arranged to change his fourth period algebra to join Alice in calculus. Unfortunately none of this care and attention could prevent Alice from glimpsing the things the girls would mutter when they saw her arrive at school each day. Hearing the hurtful comments in her visions was just as painful as the real-life experience would have been. It reached the stage where Alice once again sought out her father and begged him to allow her to suppress her visions on school days, at least for a few weeks until the girls found a new victim to torment. Carlisle agreed, after all Edward could easily hear if Jasper's thoughts indicated a temptation to slip and who needed a weather forecast? In Forks it was permanently cloudy at this time of year. And so Alice began taking a small mouthful of pink tickseed each night and went to school blissfully unaware of what might happen.

Jasper was annoyed that it should be Alice who had to make changes when she had done nothing wrong, but the fact that her visions were permanently suppressed these days gave him an idea.

Several weeks went by and life appeared to be returning to normal for the Cullens. Edward assured Alice that she was rarely in Jessica or Lauren's thoughts these days, especially since Jessica had found a new target for her lewd fantasies – Tyler Crowley. Alice felt relieved but couldn't stop herself from taking the vision suppressant each night. That was until the evening of Friday 6th December. She was just about to take her evening dose when Jasper put out his hand to stop her.

"How about you just take half the normal amount tonight," he said.

Alice frowned at him.

"But Carlisle worked it out. If I ingest 7mg of the leaves it suppresses my visions for another twenty-four hours," she replied.

"I know, darling," smiled Jasper, "But I think you might want your visions back in twelve hours time."

Alice gazed in puzzlement, but no amount of pleading or tickling would get Jasper to reveal why she needed to have her visions back. Alice trusted Jasper implicitly and knew he would never request things of her without good reason and so she complied with his wishes.

The next morning the sky over the mountains was heavy with menacing black storm clouds. Distant flickers of lightning could already be seen in the distance accompanied by faint rumbles of thunder which sounded like a petulant vampire complaining to his coven leader that one could NEVER have enough blood and he didn't see why he shouldn't be allowed to drain just one more measly human.

Most of the family were off out somewhere and only Jasper and Alice were home. Jasper walked up behind Alice and gently kissed the sensitive spot on the back of her neck which always made her tingle with pleasure.

"It's time," he said mysteriously.

"Time?" asked Alice. "Time for what?"

"You'll see," he chuckled, as he threw her over his shoulder and carried her squealing to the jeep.

"Now put this on," he commanded, passing her a blindfold.

Alice was completely taken aback at this, not to mention a little excited. Jasper was certainly no prude but he'd never initiated games like this before. Jasper could feel the rising lust coming from her.

"Control yourself, madam," he said, "and buckle up!"

From the bumpiness of the journey she knew Jasper was driving cross country and from the splashing they had crossed at least three rivers. Eventually the jeep came to a halt and Jasper gently unbuckled her seatbelt. As she was about to remove her blindfold, Jasper's hand stopped her.

"Alice, you are my absolute life," he said. "When things cause you pain, they destroy me. When you feel sorrow, I am cast into the deepest pits of despair. When you smile, I soar to the highest heavens on clouds of delight. And when you love me, I am utterly complete."

With that he removed her blindfold and she took in the scene around her. They were at the edge of an enormous field surrounded by towering mountains. On one side a waterfall cascaded down a sheer cliff face and a blanket of thick dark forest stretched for miles in all directions. She stepped out of the jeep in amazement. Standing a little way away were the rest of the family, smiling lovingly at her. They were all dressed in baseball uniforms of dark grey pants and matching jerseys. On the front of each jersey was the black and gold Cullen crest depicting the hand of faith and justice, the lion of dauntless courage and the shamrock of eternity. On the back each person had their name embroidered in gold thread. Alice saw immediately that there were more than seven of them present on the field. To her delight she saw the members of the Denali clan were also in attendance; Tanya, Kate, Irina, Carmen and her mate Eleazar. They too were wearing uniforms as, although not direct members of the Cullen coven, they were all considered close family.

Rosalie, Tanya and Kate were dressed a little differently than the others. Well a LOT differently! Each had on a long sleeve sweetheart neck top with V-waist, held up by thin double straps on the wearer's right shoulder with a matching A-line skirt. It was made of shimmering gold material with the Cullen crest neatly emblazoned in black across the heart. The entire uniform clung provocatively to each woman's curves.

"Oh, Jasper," she gasped.

Jasper held out a small parcel to Alice who was still gazing in wonderment at the scene. Silently she opened it and out fell her very own cheerleader outfit. Alice stared in amazement. Jasper laughed.

"You can get changed behind the jeep here," he said, "the game's about to begin."

Alice's face fell momentarily.

"But the routines?" she whispered. "I won't know what to do."

Jasper smiled again and gently kissed her soft warm lips.

"According to my calculations, your visions will return in one minute's time. You will know exactly what moves the others are about to make and can play your part to perfection."

With that, Jasper put on his own uniform and then sped across to join the teams.

In no time at all Alice was ready and ran over to where her squad awaited. True enough she could feel a comforting haziness descend on her mind and knew her visions had been restored. Rosalie hugged her sister.

"Don't you EVER let some silly humans make you feel worthless again," she scolded, before handing Alice her dazzling gold and black pom-poms. Alice shook them reverently and delighted in the soft swish of the streamers.

Esme, acting as umpire, called the teams to order and started the game with a cry of '_Batter up!'_


	7. Chapter 7

Carmen was pitching as Carlisle stepped up to the plate. There was a resounding crack as Carlisle smashed the ball clean over the heads of the defending side and set off running round the enormous diamond.

The cheerleaders began their routine of support for the batting side. They began with a simple series of high leg kicks before progressing to an amazing sequence of tumbles and somersaults, flinging themselves thirty or forty feet into the air with grace and ease. Alice could see exactly what the others were going to do and she launched herself along with them. As she sailed through the air doing a triple back somersault her spirits soared. She was really doing it! She was cheerleading!

As Jasper wound up to bat the girls began chanting: _Go Jasper, Go Jasper, No One's Faster, Go Jasper. _

Jasper scored a home run with ease and Alice cheered and shook her pom-poms in celebration.

Emmett was just as keen to show off his prowess and cracked a long ball off into the trees. Carlisle set off running and emerged from the trees seconds later clutching the ball. Emmett was just passing third base and knew there was no way Carlisle would get the ball to him in time to tag him out. He slowed to a gentle stroll exclaiming, "Gotta be faster than that, old man!"

Just before he reached fourth base he felt something touch him on the leg. Looking down he saw Irina holding the ball against his calf.

"Out!" called Esme, as Emmett looked back at Carlisle in disbelief.

"You were saying?" asked Carlisle, as he let the rounded lump of rock fall from his fingers.

"Mom, that's not fair," blustered Emmett, but was greeted by cries of '_It's only a game'_ and was forced to sit out till his team were up to bat again.

Tanya spotted Edward stepping up to the plate and did her own private dance of support:

_Edward, Edward, you're the man_

_ Hit a homerun for the fans_

Edward wound up with his bat and stared levelly at Eleazar who was pitching.

_And if you make that homerun, Ed_

_ Tonight you'll reach fourth base in Tanya's bed_

Edward cringed and tapped the ball directly into Eleazar's hands before joining Emmett on the 'bench'.

The game continued for hours until the storm began to fade. Joking and teasing the players left the field in twos and threes until only Jasper and Alice remained.

They lay down together in the middle of the field and watched as the dark clouds drifted away and shafts of golden sunlight began to filter down. The two didn't need words to express their love as they were like interconnecting parts of some complex puzzle and fitted together perfectly. Alice rested her head on Jasper's chest and he ran his fingers soothingly through her hair. Rolling onto her stomach she stretched out her bare toes and entwined her legs with his. A sense of utter peace and contentment enveloped them.

"You are a true blessing to me, Jasper Whitlock," she said, reaching up with her delicate fingers to softly trace the contours of his lips which always caused a thrill of electricity to spark through his entire body.

"There's just one thing puzzling me though," she continued. "Who did the girls get to stand in for me when they were working out those amazing routines?"

Jasper tickled her nose with the pom-poms.

"Who'd'ya think, darling?" He grinned.


End file.
